You don't have to wait till you get yourself a table at high tea to enjoy a traditional Christmas Pudding, you can make it at home.
If you know what a Christmas Pudding tastes like, it can be bitingly sweet. Where does it get its sweetness from? The candied fruits were seasoned for months to get to that richness of taste.
I was at the Cooking Connection, a cooking class organised by Roya Plaza on Scotts where Chef Choo of Gourmet Carousel shared the secret to a faster way to make this dessert, which cuts time required for preparations by more than half! Plus, tips which guarantees first-timers a decent pudding.
You'll need:
100 gm of black raisins, golden raisins, black currents each (or buy a packet of pre-mix)
50 gm of chopped dates
25 gm of orange peel; lemon peel
60 ml of orange juice; lemon juice; grapefruit juice
40 gm of almond strips (toasted)
50 gm of bread flour
A pinch of cinnamon powder; nutmeg powder; ginger powder; cloves powder
A pinch of salt
50 gm of brown sugar
25 gm of bread crumbs
10 gm of molasses
75 gm of beef kidney fat
2 to 3 whole eggs
To prepare:
Marinate all the candied fruits and citrus peel. Heat up freshly squeezed orange juice, grape fruit juice and lemon juice. Add juices to mixture. Set aside in room temperature for 1-2 days till fruits expand.
In a bowl, mix well all the dried ingredients, followed by molasses, beef fat and egg.
Strain the marinated fruit and peels before adding into the mixture. Mix well and keep refrigerated.
Fill in the Christmas pudding mixture into porcelain mould, cover with cling wrap and steam for 1.5 hours.
Remove from steamer and let it cool down slightly. Serve with vanilla sauce.
Tips:
-Try not to replace the beef fat with butter as it will mask the flavour of the fruits (you wouldn't want butter pudding).
-If you don't have molasses, which is essentially burnt sugar, the best alternative is unsweetened dark soya sauce.
-Take note that the Christmas pudding is best steamed with an electrical steamer (traditional steamer will take a longer time), but do not bake it as the texture of the pudding will be hard.
